The C&I reader favorite will be honored for his decades of outstanding film achievements.
Oscar-winning actor, widely respected humanitarian and C&I reader favorite Jeff Bridges has been announced as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award from the Critics Choice Association. He will receive the honor during the Jan. 15 live telecast of the 28th annual Critics Choice Awards at 7 pm ET on The CW.
“We are thrilled to be honoring the one and only Jeff Bridges with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming Critics Choice Awards,” CCA CEO Joey Berlin said in a prepared statement. “From his debut with his dad on Sea Hunt, to his iconic performance as ‘The Dude’ in The Big Lebowski, to his Oscar-winning performance in Crazy Heart, right through his amazing work in The Old Man, his decades-spanning career is unmatched. We look forward to celebrating his incredible career before an audience of millions of fans on January 15th.”
Bridges, a seven-time Academy Award nominee and one of Hollywood’s most successful actors, has appeared in dozens of movies during a career that has spanned six decades, starting with his breakthrough in the 1970 drama Halls of Anger and continuing through the 2018 neo-noir thriller Bad Times at the El Royale. He earned his first Oscar nomination for playing small-town Texan Duane Jackson in Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 filmization of Larry McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show, then reprised the role in Bogdanovich’s 1990 adaptation of McMurtry’s Texasville. He received his first Academy Award as Best Actor for his acclaimed portrayal of a self-destructive country music star in Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart (2009). More recently, Bridges has earned rave reviews for his lead performance as a former CIA officer marked for death in the television series The Old Man.
Other career highlights include standout performances in John Huston’s Fat City (1972), Lamont Johnson’s The Last American Hero (1973), John Frankenheimer’s The Iceman Cometh (1973), Michael Cimino’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), Bob Rafelson’s Stay Hungry (1976), Ivan Passer’s Cutter’s Way (1981), Taylor Hackford’s Against All Odds (1984), John Carpenter’s Starman (1984), Francis Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King (1991), Peter Weir’s Fearless (1993), and Joel and Ethan Coen’s cult-favorite comedy The Big Lebowski (1998).
Bridges reunited with the Coen Brothers to play Rooster Cogburn — the role that earned John Wayne his only Oscar — in True Grit, the 2010 remake of Henry Hathaway’s 1969 Western. Other notable Westerns or neo-Westerns on Bridges’ resume: Robert Benton’s Bad Company (1972); Frank Perry’s Rancho Deluxe and Howard Zieff’s Hearts of the West, both 1972; Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980); Walter Hill’s Wild Bill (1995); and David Mackenzie’s Taylor Sheridan-scripted Hell or High Water (2016).
Off-camera, Bridges — part of an acting dynasty that includes his late father, Sea Hunt star Lloyd Bridges, and brother Beau Bridges — has long been involved with charitable and public service organizations. Since 2010, he has been the national spokesperson for the Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry campaign to end childhood hunger in America. After his recent battles with COVID-19 and Lymphoma, Bridges teamed with AstraZeneca to launch Up The Antibodies, a new campaign to remind millions of immunocompromised Americans that COVID-19 isn’t over.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bridges abides.
Note: The Critics Choice Association is the largest critics organization in the United States and Canada, representing more than 600 media critics and entertainment journalists. It was established in 2019 with the formal merger of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association, recognizing the intersection between film, television, and streaming content.
